Exceeding Abudantly

Exceeding Abundantly Above All We Ask Or Think

By Fred Pruitt

“Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us …”

It is sometimes easy for us to think of ourselves as dolts, or slow-witted, because it seems to take so long for the reality that we are enveloped in nothing but God’s personal love to seep into our settled knowing. It isn’t because we are dim-witted that makes it so difficult to believe, but precisely because it continuously has this quality about it, that it is “exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or THINK!” It is exactly that — His Life in us, as us, is above and beyond, always, whatever we ask and whatever we “think.”

It’s that “something” you can’t quite mentally grasp, because to truly “grasp” the wonder of grace with an unfettered vision of the dynamic force of God’s love, would absolutely break our puny minds. We would mentally meltdown and do nothing but babble the rest of our lives. They would put us in the loony bin.

So He mercifully gives us our awakenings in doses we can take. It always has that ring of “too good to be true” to it that makes people who are too careful stay away. Because it IS too good to be true, at least to our mortal minds!

What is too good to be true? That this moment, this instant, this TOO-GOOD-TO-BE-TRUENESS (above all that we ask or think) is functioning right now within us “according to the power that worketh in us.”

What power? The Power of the Living God, the only power that works within us. The Eternal Power, generated by the Spirit who within us every single moment “maketh intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered …. according to the will of God” In other words, this is going on all the time (or eternally if you prefer) without necessarily our “conscious” involvement — what LOVE!!!

Can this really be so?

Paul precedes the above part with this: “That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love …” Therefore dwelling in Him in faith, our root and ground is Love because that is what He is.

Paul goes on: That they … “may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God.” To be filled with the fullness of God, to know the breadth, the length, the depths, the height, of HIM, is to know, to be, to live, Love.

This divine love is not just sentimentality or emotion, but a living driving force, a compelling reach to extend and propagate itself by giving birth to itself out of itself, to generate Freedom and Liberty, to express itself in differentiation and to delight in it, to uphold, to build up, to expand in unbounded Liberality, by means of a Lamb slain in the innermost depths of All.

This is the heritage, the inheritance, of the sons of God, a too-good-to-be-true unbounded, unending, indescribable, unbelievable-to-the-mind-of-man no-holds-barred ETERNAL LOVE operating in us, in every facet of us, as us, in every facet as us, around us, in everyone, everywhere.

We Live in Romans 8

To put it briefly, Romans 7 is not the chapter in which the believer lives. We live indwelt By Christ in Romans 8. Romans 7 is when we forget that Christ lives in us, and we try to live – to fulfill the law – by our own strength. But independent self is sin, therefore the moment we forget the indwelling Christ, and try to live by independent self, sin is at work in us, and we are under its dominion. Therefore the point to remember is that as that chapter tells us, we are dead to the law; that means we are not independent people trying to fulfill God’s law. We are new people, with the Law-Giver living in us, Christ Himself. We only enter the bondage of Romans 7, when we forget that fact and we must learn to turn quickly by the cleansing blood to our abiding place in Romans 8.
(Norman Grubb)

Norman Grubb

Unforced rhythms of grace

"Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly."
(Matt 11:28-30, The Message)